The present invention relates to ready to assemble furniture, and more particularly to a ready to assembly chair base for a rolling office chair.
Rolling office chairs are known to include a large diameter chair base having 5 or more legs radiating out from a central hub. The multiple legs and large diameter provides stability for a chair that is able to roll about as well as recline. While the large diameter chair base is critical to stability of the chair, it has the drawback of significantly increasing shipping costs because the diameter of the chair base is the largest dimension of the chair, and thus dictates the size of the packaging of the chair for shipping. A larger box reduces the number of boxes that can fit into a shipping container and increases the overall landed costs of the chair when shipped.
In order to reduce shipping costs, many such chairs are broken down into smaller subassemblies for shipping. For example, the chair base, post (gas lift), seat and seat back are disassembled and packed into a smaller box. This significantly reduces the size of the shipping box and the landed cost. However, the diameter of the chair base is still the largest dimension of the box contents and still dictates the largest single dimension of the box. Because it is an ongoing objective of manufacturers to continually reduce landed cost of products, there is a continuing need in the industry to reduce the size of packaging, and in this case, packaging for rolling office chairs.
The present invention provides a unique and novel ready to assembly chair base, which can be broken down into several component parts, packed in a smaller volume of space, and then easily re-assembled by the consumer.
In an exemplary embodiment, the chair base comes apart into 3 components. First and second leg components each include 2 of the 5 legs, and a third leg component includes only a single leg. A hub portion of all three components includes a portion of the central tapered hole. The hub portions of the first and second components join together with vertical interlocking surfaces, i.e. they slidably lock together in the direction of the axis of the central tapered hole. The hub of the third leg component (single leg) is formed in the shape of a blade and is inserted into a horizontal slot (perpendicular to the axis of the central hole) formed by the interlocked hubs of the first and second leg components. The slot and blade use a butterfly joint to hold all three components together. Once the gas lift is inserted into the center, tapered hole of the base it locks all three components together.
In one version of the exemplary embodiment, the interlocking surfaces are tapered dovetail joints, and in a second version, the interlocking surfaces are T-shaped joints.
Among the objects of the instant invention is the provision of a ready to assemble chair base that can be broken down into several component parts and packed into a smaller volume of space than the assembled components.
Another object of the instant invention is the provision of a ready to assemble chair base that be easily reassembled by the consumer with no tools.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.